Billboard magazine, one of the oldest and deepest entrenched music magazines, is citing multiple sources as having revealed secret details of Google's upcoming music service.

The new Google Music comes at a price -- $25 a year to be precise -- but it makes Apple's iTunes (in its current implementation) look like a dinosaur. First the basics; the service will offer direct digital downloads much like Apple.

Your $25 subscription fee comes with a free online music "locker" -- a secure storage site in the cloud – in which you will be able to place your purchases. From there they can stream your music to any compatible internet connected computer or device.

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If that feature is not enough to make Apple blush, this will as well -- Google will be offering a one-time full preview, reportedly of every track in its library, similar to what Lala.com did before Apple acquired it, killing the full-length previews. Full previews certainly outdo iTunes 20 second previews of 4 minute tracks.

why don't you like it? I find that to be the most useful Gmail feature there is.

Because sometimes they'd group things together in conversations that aren't conversations, for example, I wanted my online shopping email account to be a Gmail account. With this, there are NO conversations but sometimes they'd group somethings as conversations but not other things. I never could figure out why some things that weren't conversations were grouped as them but other, similar things, that also weren't conversations, weren't.

I'm sure there are other instances where you have a collection of email that aren't in any way conversational but that was the reason for me.

I always wanted it as an option because there are times, for general emailing, I'd guess, where this feature makes sense so I didn't want it eliminated completely.

Appearing on CNN’s "Parker Spitzer" program last week, he said that people who don’t like Google’s Street View cars taking pictures of their homes and businesses "can just move" afterward to protect their privacy. Ironically, he said this on the very day that Google admitted those cars captured more than just fragments of personal payload data.

Jobs or Gates would be crucified for that kind of remark but Schmidt runs his mouth and nobody cares?

Over the last 90 days of available statistics, popular multi-network sharing service AddThis shows few surprises in its top services selected by customers. Facebook dominates all options with nearly 40 percent of all shares, with Twitter and e-mail having just under ten percent apiece. But further down the chart, while most services saw single digit moves, up or down, two Google services are seeing significant growth - with Gmail logging an increase of 76%, and its companion network, Google Buzz, spiking, up 296% from the previous 90 day period. Sharing from AddThis to Buzz was good enough for #22 overall, just ahead of others including LinkedIn, Tumblr and Wordpress.

Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we've reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users' concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------This mandatory announcement was sent to all Gmail users in the United States as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.